Max Lempel

Max Lempel was born in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1900 into an assimilated Jewish family. He studied at the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna and was a member of a Zionist youth movement in the city. He studied in Vienna and Prague with Alexander von Zemlinsky and collaborated with him as a conductor and organist. Upon his return to Vienna from Prague, he continued his career as a conductor of choirs and orchestras.


Josef Tal (Gruenthal)

Composer, pianist & teacher

Josef Tal (b. Pine, Germany 1910 - Jerusalem 2008, immigrated in 1934), composer, pianist, conductor, and lecturer, has gained an exceptional reception in the last decades. As one of the most published local composers, about 100 of his pieces have been published by the Israel Music Institute. He was the most distinctive among the first generation of composers who principally opposed the use of folklorism and orientalism. This may have reflected his education in Berlin in the late 1920's, where he was immensely influenced by the Second Viennese school.


Karel Reiner

Composer & pianist; active in the musical life of Theresienstadt (Terezín)

Karel Reiner, composer and pianist, born June 27, 1910 in Žatec (Western Bohemia). Reiner studied law and musicology at the Charles University in Prague, and composition at the Master School under Josef Suk and Alois Hába. Aside from his interest in composition, Reiner was a talented pianist, dedicated to propagating contemporary music throughout Europe. Reiner concertized regularly and was a sought after accompanist until the Nazi occupying forces in the Czech territories issued a ban on public performances by Jewish musicians.